Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce company, was accompanied by his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, at a meeting at the Vatican on Aug. 15, 2024, the Daily Mail reported. / Credit: Flickr Daniel Oberhaus, 2019 CC BY 2.0; Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis received Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon — who was accompanied by his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez — at the Vatican last week.
The Vatican Press Office made no mention of the meeting in its bulletin where it generally reports on the meetings that the Holy Father holds on a daily basis.
According to the Daily Mail, Pope Francis’ meeting with Bezos and Sanchez took place on Thursday, Aug. 15, the day the Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
On her Instagram account, Sanchez said that “it was an honor for Jeff and I to spend time with His Holiness, @franciscus at his home in the Vatican.”
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“His wisdom, warmth, and humor were deeply touching. He reminded us not to take life too seriously, a simple yet powerful reminder to keep lightness in our hearts,” she commented.
Bezos’ fiancée related that “we also discussed the urgent need for climate action, something he’s passionate about, as are all of us at the Bezos Earth Fund.”
Sanchez also noted that what Pope Francis believes about “finding beauty and meaning in everything we do resonated deeply with me. I love that he encourages priests to read poetry and literature to stay connected with the human spirit.”
In closing, the 54-year-old said she was “grateful for this incredible blessing and for the gentle wisdom he shared with us.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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When the Nazis occupied Rome for nine months following the fall of Mussolini, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty created what came to be known as the “Rome Escape Line.” / Patrick Leonard/EWTN
Vatican City, Oct 20, 2023 / 09:40 am (CNA).
Many people know Irish Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty from Hollywood’s portrayal of his life in “The Scarlet and the Black,” the film based on a real-life Catholic hero who was honored at the Vatican this week.
Ireland’s President Michael Higgins in a Vatican ceremony on Oct. 19 paid tribute to O’Flaherty, an Irish priest who hid Italian Jews from the Nazis and went on to baptize the former head of the Gestapo in Rome.
When the Nazis occupied Rome for nine months following the fall of Mussolini, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty created what came to be known as the “Rome Escape Line.” Credit: Patrick Leonard/EWTN
The wreath-laying ceremony marked the 60th anniversary of O’Flaherty’s death on Oct. 30, 1963. The ceremony took place in the Vatican’s Teutonic Cemetery, where a plaque commemorates O’Flaherty as a “tireless defender of the weak and oppressed” who saved more than 6,000 lives during World War II.
Higgins praised the Irish priest for his “wonderful courageous work in the most terrible of times.”
“It took great courage and took great commitment and it was morally so striking that somebody did all of that for those threatened,” the Irish president told EWTN.
The wreath-laying ceremony on Oct. 19, 2023, marked the 60th anniversary of O’Flaherty’s death on Oct. 30, 1963. Credit: Patrick Leonard/EWTN
Born in County Cork in 1898, O’Flaherty grew up in Killarney playing golf on the course where his father worked as a steward before discerning his vocation to the priesthood.
As a seminarian, O’Flaherty studied theology in Rome at the Urban College of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and went on to earn doctorates in both canon law and philosophy in Rome.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1925 and became a Vatican diplomat, during which time he served in posts in Haiti, Egypt, and Czechoslovakia.
During World War II, O’Flaherty lived in the German College inside Vatican City State and worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then known as the Holy Office.
The Holy See assigned O’Flaherty the task of visiting the Italian prisoner-of-war camps, where he brought books, cigarettes, chocolate, and hope to the English-speaking Allied prisoners, according to the Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Society. After these visits, the priest used Vatican Radio to contact the prisoners’ relatives.
When the Nazis occupied Rome for nine months following the fall of Mussolini, O’Flaherty created what came to be known as the “Rome Escape Line” — a network of priests, diplomats, and expatriates in Rome who helped to hide more than 6,000 escaped Allied POWs and Jews in convents, monasteries, and residences.
Among those, O’Flaherty hid 50 people in his Vatican residence, the Pontifical Teutonic College, during the war years.
Secret meetings among members of the Rome Escape Line to exchange documents and information on safe houses took place inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the foot of Michaelangelo’s Pieta or near the Altar of the Chair, according to the Vatican.
After the liberation in Rome in 1944, the head of the German SS Herbert Kappler was sentenced in 1948 to life imprisonment in solitary confinement in Italy. O’Flaherty went to the prison to visit Kappler — who had previously threatened to torture and kill the Irish priest — every month for 10 years.
In 1959, O’Flaherty baptized Kappler and received the converted war criminal into the Catholic Church.
During his time in Rome, the Irish president also met with Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Oct. 19, 2023, with whom he discussed issues of common interest, including “food security in developing countries and commitment to the elimination of poverty,” according to the Vatican. Credit: Vatican Media
With the opening of Vatican archives from the pontificate of Pius XII (1939–1958), historians have been further researching O’Flaherty’s life and legacy.
“In his native Kerry they are very very proud of this wonderful man that they produced at the heart of the Vatican who was able to do so much,” Higgins told EWTN.
“It is very appropriate that he be remembered and honored, and also that his example be repeated.”
Strasbourg, France, Jul 5, 2021 / 05:45 am Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Sunday that Europe needs faith in God as it struggles with a “demographic winter.” Preaching at Mass in Strasbourg Cathedral in France […]
People visit a polling station to cast their vote during the second phase of voting on April 26, 2024, in a village in Ukhrul district, Manipur, India. / Credit: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images
Bangalore, India, Jun 5, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
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4 Comments
Of course love for the beauty of nature, preserving the environment is his better side as recognized by Ms Lauren. Bezos’ Earth Fund is a good cause. So I won’t be negative and mention His Holiness’ affection for Earth goddess Pachamama. Would that Francis I and Jeff Bezos have more concern for the millions of little ones who’ll never see the beauty of nature.
An interesting aside is the Pachamama Alliance, an NGO which has been around for some years with special interest in the indigenous of the Amazon. “Our courses are inspired by a request from those partners [Achuar people] to shift the culture of the global north from consumption, exploitation, and extraction to one that honors and sustains all life” (Pachamama Alliance mission statement). We get the growing sense as Vatican affairs go that the Church appears to be steered in a like shift of direction.
Of course love for the beauty of nature, preserving the environment is his better side as recognized by Ms Lauren. Bezos’ Earth Fund is a good cause. So I won’t be negative and mention His Holiness’ affection for Earth goddess Pachamama. Would that Francis I and Jeff Bezos have more concern for the millions of little ones who’ll never see the beauty of nature.
An interesting aside is the Pachamama Alliance, an NGO which has been around for some years with special interest in the indigenous of the Amazon. “Our courses are inspired by a request from those partners [Achuar people] to shift the culture of the global north from consumption, exploitation, and extraction to one that honors and sustains all life” (Pachamama Alliance mission statement). We get the growing sense as Vatican affairs go that the Church appears to be steered in a like shift of direction.
Now, the real question is this: Will Francis make time to meet with the four dubia Cardinals?
Define fiancee, pls.
Girlfriend, partner, fiancee – what’s the difference?
Elsewhere, I learn that these two have two children.
How about “common-law wife”?